Paper Compile Skill for Claude

Paper Compile: LaTeX to Submission-Ready PDF

Compile the LaTeX paper and fix any issues: $ARGUMENTS

Constants

• COMPILER = latexmk — LaTeX build tool. Handles multi-pass compilation automatically.
• ENGINE = pdflatex — LaTeX engine. Options: pdflatex (default), xelatex (for CJK/custom fonts), lualatex.
• MAX_COMPILE_ATTEMPTS = 3 — Maximum attempts to fix errors and recompile.
• PAPER_DIR = paper/ — Directory containing LaTeX source files.
• MAX_PAGES — Page limit. ML conferences: main body to Conclusion end (excluding references & appendix). ICLR=9, NeurIPS=9, ICML=8. IEEE venues: references ARE included in page count. IEEE journal ≈ 12-14 pages, IEEE conference ≈ 5-8 pages (all inclusive).
• RESCUE_ON_REPEAT_FAILURE = true — If the same compile class fails after two attempts, preserve compile.log and ask for a focused rescue / second opinion before further edits.

Workflow

Step 1: Verify Prerequisites

Check that the compilation environment is ready:

# Check LaTeX installation
which pdflatex && which latexmk && which bibtex

# If not installed, provide instructions:
# macOS: brew install --cask mactex-no-gui
# Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install texlive-full
# Server: conda install -c conda-forge texlive-core

Verify all required files exist:

# Must exist
ls $PAPER_DIR/main.tex

# Should exist
ls $PAPER_DIR/references.bib
ls $PAPER_DIR/sections/*.tex
ls $PAPER_DIR/figures/*.pdf 2>/dev/null || ls $PAPER_DIR/figures/*.png 2>/dev/null

Step 2: First Compilation Attempt

cd $PAPER_DIR

# Clean previous build artifacts
latexmk -C

# Full compilation (pdflatex + bibtex + pdflatex × 2)
latexmk -pdf -interaction=nonstopmode -halt-on-error main.tex 2>&1 | tee compile.log

Step 3: Error Diagnosis and Auto-Fix

If compilation fails, read compile.log and fix common errors:

Missing packages:

! LaTeX Error: File `somepackage.sty' not found.

→ Install via tlmgr install somepackage or remove the \usepackage if unused.

Undefined references:

LaTeX Warning: Reference `fig:xyz' on page 3 undefined

→ Check \label{fig:xyz} exists in the correct figure environment.

Missing figures:

! LaTeX Error: File `figures/fig1.pdf' not found.

→ Check if the file exists with a different extension (.png vs .pdf). Update the \includegraphics path.

Citation undefined:

LaTeX Warning: Citation `smith2024' undefined

→ Add the missing entry to references.bib or fix the citation key.

[VERIFY] markers in text:

→ Search for [VERIFY] markers left by /paper-write. These indicate unverified citations or facts. Search for the correct information or flag to the user.

Overfull hbox:

Overfull \hbox (12.5pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 42--45

→ Minor: usually ignorable. If severe (>20pt), rephrase the text or adjust figure width.

BibTeX errors:

I was expecting a `,' or a `}'---line 15 of references.bib

→ Fix BibTeX syntax (missing comma, unmatched braces, special characters in title).

\crefname undefined for custom theorem types:

→ Ensure \crefname{assumption}{Assumption}{Assumptions} and similar are in the preamble after \newtheorem{assumption}.

Step 4: Iterative Fix Loop

for attempt in 1..MAX_COMPILE_ATTEMPTS:
    compile()
    if success:
        break
    parse_errors()
    auto_fix()

For each error:

• Read the error message from compile.log
• Locate the source file and line number
• Apply the fix
• Recompile

Step 5: Post-Compilation Checks

After successful compilation, verify the output:

# Check PDF exists and has content
ls -la main.pdf
# Check page count
pdfinfo main.pdf | grep Pages

# macOS: open for visual inspection
# open main.pdf

Automated checks:

• [ ] PDF file exists and is > 100KB (not empty/corrupt)
• [ ] Total page count is reasonable (MAX_PAGES + appendix + references)
• [ ] No "??" in the PDF (undefined references — grep the log)
• [ ] No "[?]" in the PDF (undefined citations — grep the log)
• [ ] Figures are rendered (not missing image placeholders)

# Check for undefined references
grep -c "LaTeX Warning.*undefined" compile.log

# Check for missing citations
grep -c "Citation.*undefined" compile.log

Step 6: Page Count Verification

CRITICAL: Verify paper fits within MAX_PAGES.

For ML conferences (ICLR/NeurIPS/ICML/CVPR/ACL/AAAI): Main body = first page through end of Conclusion section (not necessarily §5 — could be §6, §7, or §8 depending on structure). References and appendix are NOT counted.

For IEEE venues: The TOTAL page count (including references) must fit within the limit. There is no separate "main body" counting — everything up to and including the references counts.

Precise check using pdftotext:

# Extract text and find where Conclusion ends vs References begin
pdftotext main.pdf - | python3 -c "
import sys
text = sys.stdin.read()
pages = text.split('\f')
for i, page in enumerate(pages):
    if 'Ethics Statement' in page or 'Reproducibility' in page:
        print(f'Conclusion ends on page {i+1}')
    if any(w in page for w in ['References', 'Bibliography']):
        lines = [l for l in page.split('\n') if l.strip()]
        for l in lines[:3]:
            if 'References' in l or 'Bibliography' in l:
                print(f'References start on page {i+1}')
                break
"

If Conclusion ends mid-page and References start on the same page, the main body is that page number (e.g., if both are on page 9, main body = ~8.5 pages, which is fine for a 9-page limit since it leaves room for the References header).

If over limit:

• Identify which sections are longest
• Suggest specific cuts (move proofs to appendix, compress tables, tighten writing)
• Report: "Main body is X pages (limit: MAX_PAGES). Suggestion: move [specific content] to appendix."

Step 6.5: Stale File Detection

Check for orphaned section files not referenced by main.tex:

# Find all .tex files in sections/ and check which are \input'ed by main.tex
for f in paper/sections/*.tex; do
    base=$(basename "$f")
    if ! grep -q "$base" paper/main.tex; then
        echo "WARNING: $f is not referenced by main.tex — consider removing"
    fi
done

This prevents confusion from leftover files when section structure changes (e.g., old 5_conclusion.tex left behind after restructuring to 7 sections).

Step 7: Submission Readiness

For conference submission, additional checks:

• [ ] Anonymous: no author names, affiliations, or self-citations that reveal identity
• [ ] Page limit: main body within MAX_PAGES (to end of Conclusion)
• [ ] Font embedding: all fonts embedded in PDF

  pdffonts main.pdf | grep -v "yes"  # should return nothing (or only header)

• [ ] No supplementary mixed in: appendix clearly after \newpage\appendix
• [ ] File size: reasonable (< 50MB for most venues, < 10MB preferred)
• [ ] No [VERIFY] markers: search the PDF text for leftover markers

Step 8: Output Summary

## Compilation Report

- **Status**: SUCCESS / FAILED
- **PDF**: paper/main.pdf
- **Pages**: X (main body to Conclusion) + Y (references) + Z (appendix)
- **Within page limit**: YES/NO (MAX_PAGES = N)
- **Errors fixed**: [list of auto-fixed issues]
- **Warnings remaining**: [list of non-critical warnings]
- **Undefined references**: 0
- **Undefined citations**: 0

### Next Steps
- [ ] Visual inspection of PDF
- [ ] Run `/paper-write` to fix any content issues
- [ ] Submit to [venue] via OpenReview / CMT / HotCRP

Key Rules

• Never delete the user's source files — only modify to fix errors
• Keep compile.log — useful for debugging
• Don't suppress warnings — report them, let the user decide
• If LaTeX is not installed, provide clear installation instructions rather than failing silently
• Font embedding is critical — some venues reject PDFs with non-embedded fonts
• Page count rules differ by venue — ML conferences: main body to Conclusion (refs excluded). IEEE venues: total pages including references.

Common Venue Requirements

| Venue | Style File | Citation | Page Limit | Refs in limit? | Submission |

|-------|-----------|----------|------------|----------------|------------|

| ICLR 2026 | iclr2026_conference.sty | natbib (\citep/\citet) | 9 pages (to Conclusion end) | No | OpenReview |

| NeurIPS 2025 | neurips_2025.sty | natbib (\citep/\citet) | 9 pages (to Conclusion end) | No | OpenReview |

| ICML 2025 | icml2025.sty | natbib (\citep/\citet) | 8 pages (to Conclusion end) | No | OpenReview |

| IEEE Journal | IEEEtran.cls [journal] | cite (\cite{}, numeric) | ~12-14 pages (Transactions) / ~4-5 (Letters) | Yes | IEEE Author Portal / ScholarOne |

| IEEE Conference | IEEEtran.cls [conference] | cite (\cite{}, numeric) | 5-8 pages (varies by conf) | Yes | EDAS / IEEE Author Portal |